Tarantulas make up about 2 percent of the 44,500 known species of spiders, but they boast a particularly outsized profile thanks to movies where they're cast to signal mortal danger, elicit shrieks of fear—or both.

Fascinated by the seemingly bizarre characteristics of flatfishes—including their elongated fin rays and the migration of their eyes to a single side—Roje took on the problem of studying their origins and evolutionary transformations.